Business Ethics Briefing
Issue 22: December 2011
The Ethical Challenges of Social Media
This Briefing aims to raise awareness of the ethical challenges social media presents for
companies and considers good practice in providing guidance for employees on its use,
whether for business or personal use.
Social Media and Business Ethics
Social media is an umbrella term used to describe social interaction through a suite of technology based
tools, many of which are internet based. This includes, but is not limited to, internet forums,
networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus, webcasts, and blogs.
Social media exhibits unique characteristics when compared to „traditional‟ media forms. Its speed
and scope means that once content is published it is available instantaneously, to a potentially
global audience. Social media tools tend to be free or available at a very low cost relative to
other forms of media and do not require users to have much technical knowledge. This allows
larger numbers of individuals to access and publish material than with traditional media forms.
Social media is usually interactive in a way that traditional media is not, so users can comment on
and edit published material, making it difficult to control content. Social media blurs private/public
boundaries when individuals‟ personal information and opinions enter the public domain. The
boundaries between personal and work life also become blurred as companies make use of social media
(originally designed for personal use) for business purposes, and likewise employees access personal
sites while at work. A 2011 DLA Piper survey found social media is used for personal and work related
activities by 95% of employees(1).
These unique characteristics of social media pose ethical challenges for business, through employees‟ use
of social media on behalf of the company, as well as their personal use. The news headlines in Box 1
provide examples of these challenges.
Box 1: Headlines relating to social media in 2011
‘Bayer rapped for tweeting about medicines’
‘Cyber bullying more harmful’
‘Online monitoring of job candidates raises disturbing questions’
‘Third of firms forced to discipline workers over social media tweets and
updates’
(1)
This survey report is based on data from: 250 online interviews with senior business decision makers, 100 online
employee interviews and five in-depth qualitative interviews with senior business decision makers within organisations
with 250+ employees and revenues of greater than £30m. The study was conducted by Coleman Parkes Research on
behalf of DLA Piper. Available at: http://www.dlapipershiftinglandscapes.com/export/sites/shiftinglandscapesdownloads/Shifting_Landscapes_-_Social_Media.pdf
This and other Business Ethics Briefings are available to download free from the IBE
website: http://www.ibe.org.uk/index.asp?upid=51&msid=8
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Page 2
The Ethical Challenges of Social Media
The Ethical Challenges
Integrity risk
In an IBE survey of large companies(2), 6 of 7
respondents identified integrity risk as the main
ethical challenge with regard to social media. When
an employee uses social media in an irresponsible way
either on behalf of the company or through their
personal social media account, it can undermine the
company‟s commitment to ethical practice and
expose it to integrity risk.
“While the decision to post videos, pictures, thoughts,
experiences, and observations to social networking sites
is personal, a single act can create far-reaching ethical
consequences for individuals as well as organisations.”(6)
Advertising and marketing practices
The scope and speed of social media make it an
effective medium through which companies market
themselves and their products/services. With any
form of marketing, companies have a duty to market
responsibly. The interactive nature of social media
provides companies with the ability to engage with
The case of Nestlé provides an example. In March customers more directly than other forms of media.
2011, an employee who was managing content on the This poses new ethical challenges.
company‟s Facebook „Fan Page‟ posted offensive
comments in response to negative remarks by „fans‟. It has become common practice for companies to
The employee‟s behavior violated the company‟s create profiles on social networking sites to advertise
business principle of integrity and their commitment their goods and services. To avoid misleading
to “avoid any conduct that could damage or risk Nestlé or consumers, employees can declare that they are
its reputation”(3) and provoked a consumer backlash. representing/have an interest in the company e.g. if
Amidst calls to boycott Nestlé, members of the writing product reviews.
general public also joined the Fan Page specifically to
A company‟s ability to meet fair competition
criticise the Company.(4)
guidelines can be jeopardised by employees using
Alternatively, employees might post negative social media on behalf of the company; for example, if
comments about the company on their personal social an employee, whilst representing the company, „takes
media profile. This is harder for companies to control. matters into their own hands‟ and uses social media
The DLA Piper survey found that one third of unethically, to discredit the reputation of their
employers had disciplined staff for inappropriate employer‟s competitors.
comments about the company on social media sites.(5)
Recruitment practices
To ensure that work-related discussion amongst
A 2011 survey of 800 recruiters and human resource
employees is internal to the organisation, Serco
professionals found that 64% make use of two or
Group, a large UK-listed international services
more social networks as part of their assessment
company, has developed an „internal Facebook‟. This
practices when recruiting employees(7). There are also
is for staff to use to discuss work topics with
specialist organisations that provide social media
colleagues rather than using public forums, as a way of
employment screening services. This raises ethical
dealing with integrity risk.
challenges for employers around employees‟ right to
privacy and fairness. Is it ethical or fair to judge an
(2)
Survey of 7 companies with 2,000 employees or more, IBE, 2011
(3)
Nestlé, Code of Business Conduct, 2007. Available at: http://www.nestle.com/Investors/CorporateGovernance/
CodeOfBusinessConduct/Pages/CodeOfBusinessConductHome.aspx
(4)
Nestlé hit by Facebook "anti-social" media surge, The Guardian, 19 March 2011. Available at: http://
www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/nestle-facebook To view some of the correspondence on Nestlé‟s
Facebook page, see: What other companies can learn from Nestlé‟s Facebook page, Digital Inspiration, http://
www.labnol.org/internet/nestle-facebook-page/13208/
(5)
DLA Piper, Op cit
(6)
Deloitte, Social Networking and Reputational Risk in the Workplace, 2009
(7)
New Tools Cast a Wider Social Network for Recruiters, by Rita Pyrillis, Workforce Management Online, August 2011
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The Ethical Challenges of Social Media
individual‟s ability to fulfill their employee
responsibilities based on information about their
personal lives, gained from their social media profile?
In some cases, the information may relate to past
activities in a job candidate‟s personal life. An Ethikos
article cited a case where an individual was denied a
job due to his activities posted online 20 years
previously.(8)
Where an employer does use social media in
recruitment screening/assessment of potential
employees, whether this is done directly or
outsourced, the company should have a clear policy
and be open about it.
Duty of care
As highlighted previously, social media blurs the
boundaries between personal and work life. When
personal opinions expressed through social media
(either on a personal profile or an online forum) refer
to a company, it raises an ethical challenge. It is
unclear what control, if any, the company has over
comments communicated in this way and what action
it can/should take.
The blurring of personal and work life boundaries can
make it difficult for companies to uphold their duty of
care to employees. For example, it is hard to monitor
cases of „cyber-bullying‟, particularly where employees
use their personal social media account. One in ten
UK workers believes that workplace cyber-bullying is
a problem(9) and a fifth of employers have had to
discipline staff for posting nasty comments about a
colleague online.(10) The same survey found bullying
and harassment and discrimination were two of the
top five risks of social media for the workplace.(11)
The challenge for companies is identifying acceptable
levels of monitoring employees‟ personal use of social
media, without being seen to limit their freedom of
expression – see Box 2 for examples.
Companies which choose to monitor employees‟
personal use of social media need to communicate
their policy to employees so that they are aware of
the practice, what it means for employees, and why it
is necessary. Clear guidance is needed to help regulate
monitoring and set its boundaries to avoid potential
abuses.
Box 2: Monitoring social media use —
corporate examples
Serco Group(12)
“The key question is can we and should we (ethically) be
enforcing our corporate policies relating to our employees
(linked in many cases to our core values as an
organisation) outside of work?
In a recent case a member of the public complained to
us that the views on an employee‟s Facebook page
(potentially racist) were not in line with our company
values and because they had listed us as their employer,
basically the question was „What are we going to do
about it?‟ The information in that case was clearly not
being discussed in a work context, the only link being
that the individual worked for us - BUT, where do you
draw the line? Should our policies prevent them from
working for us?
Therefore the Company has reserved the right to monitor
such activity, and this is now highlighted in our code of
conduct.”
Argos(13)
In August 2011 Argos, the catalogue retail company,
fired an employee for gross misconduct after he
complained about his job on his Facebook page. The
employee did not mention his employer in the
comments, but the Company maintained the
comments breach the Argos social networking
policy and could "damage the reputation of the
company".
(8)
Social media monitoring raises disturbing questions: An Ethikos interview with Kansas State‟s Diane Swanson, Ethikos,
September/October 2011, pp.7-9
(9)
See: ACAS Research Paper (2009), Workplaces and Social Networking: The implications for employment relations, pp.28,
by Andrea Broughton, Tom Higgins, Ben Hicks and Annette Cox, The Institute for Employment Studies
(10)
DLA Piper, Op cit
(11)
Ibid, pp.7
(12)
Example taken from a response to an IBE survey of 7 companies with 2,000 employees or more, 2011
(13)
For more information on this case see: Argos sacks cancer sufferer who moaned about job on Facebook by Mark
Blunden, The Evening Standard, 19th August 2011. Available at: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article23979704-argos-sacks-cancer-sufferer-who-moaned-about-job-on-facebook.do
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The Ethical Challenges of Social Media
Providing Guidance
Developing Guidance
To address the ethical challenges that social media
presents, companies need to fully assess the risks and
be aware of the challenges presented by social media
before using it.
An effective social media policy is developed through
engagement and dialogue between the employer and
its employees. Engagement may be particularly useful
for companies deciding whether to monitor
employees‟ use of social media. This helps ensure
guidance is reasonably fair and understood by and
acceptable to both parties. Similarly, it can be
beneficial for the ethics function to work with other
functions across the organisation to develop an
effective social media policy (see Box 3), for example
working with Human Resources and Corporate Affairs
helps ensure guidance reflects the sensitivity of the
topic.
Through a social media policy companies can provide
guidance to employees on how to address the ethical
challenges. The policy needs to be consistent with the
company‟s ethics policy and overlap with other
existing policies around communication. The policy
would provide guidance on two main areas;
employees‟ use of social media on behalf of the
company, and employees‟ personal use of social media,
including issues such as bullying and harassment,
It is also important for companies to manage external
speaking up and employees‟ right to privacy.
stakeholders‟ expectations about their engagement
The guidance could also make clear that employees with the company‟s social media profile. This can be
are not judged for personal activities or opinions as done through „terms of use‟ e.g. stating whether the
long as they are within the law, not offensive to others page is monitored or not, whether negative/racist
or the company, and do not refer to the company or comments etc will be removed, that views expressed
work life. Companies may advise employees on are by fans and not endorsed by the company, and so
security settings for personal social media accounts, on.
encouraging them to apply high privacy settings. Box 3: Partnerships between functions
Alternatively, companies may prefer employees to
Shell
disclose their employer, to facilitate company
monitoring practices. As one company‟s policy states: “Our Communications team are now in the process of
“your responsibility to [the Company] doesn‟t end developing, in collaboration with Ethics & Compliance,
when you are off the clock.”(14) Guidance might Legal, HR and Internal Risk Management, policies and
emphasise the need for employees to reflect on their standards to cover (a) internal use, to give employees
individual responsibility to the company when using clear guidance about what they should and should not do
in social media, (b) external Terms of Use to set
social media.
expectations with the external community on how the
Guidance on social media needs to be reviewed and Company will engage, and (c) a toolset for marketing
communicated more regularly than other policies due that provides guidance on engagement processes.”
to the rapid pace of change and development in social
media and its use. Of those companies with a social Further Reading
media policy, the majority are failing to effectively  CIPR Social Media Guidance: Best Practice Guide,
communicate, monitor and roll out training on the
May 2011, Chartered Institute of Public
Relations
policy(15). KPMG releases regular alerts and
http://www.cipr.co.uk/sites/default/files/
communications to ensure personnel are aware of the
CIPR_social_media%20_best%20_practice%
social media policy and firm practice. When personnel
20_guidance%20_2011_1_0.pdf
navigate to a social media site, an on-screen alert
appears to remind them of their individual  Social Media.org, Disclosure Best Practice Toolkit
http://www.socialmedia.org/disclosure/
responsibility to comply with firm policies.
 Social Media Governance
http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php
(14) See: How I did it: Best Buy‟s CEO on Learning to Love Social Media, Harvard Business Review, December 2010, pp.43-48
(15) DLA Piper, Op Cit
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